Cubs slugger Kyle Schwarber hasn’t seen major-league game action since tearing two knee ligaments during the second game of the season. He was finally cleared to return to the field last week, and on Saturday he joined the Mesa Solar Sox in the Arizona Fall League. Schwarber got six at-bats in two games, and the Cubs apparently saw enough out of him to throw him on a private jet and fly him to Cleveland last night.

Some reporters are already penciling him into the starting lineup for Game 1:

This feels a little crazy, right? Kyle Schwarber is a really good young player who can knock the dick off the ball, but he’s not Barry Bonds. He’s got 236 big-league at-bats, and though he did club five home runs in last year’s playoffs, he hasn’t seen real pitching in over six months. If he starts Game 1, he’ll be jumping from whatever scrubs he faced in six fall-league at-bats to Corey goddamn Kluber.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Crazy is also fun, though, and for that reason I’m rooting for Schwarber to be in the lineup tonight. I want the big lug to smack a dinger or two and get what I hope will be an awesome World Series started on the right foot.